Thursday, August 1, 2013

John Colby's Freedom of Information Campaign against Human Rights abuse in Santa Cruz[link]. Human Rights abuse in itty-bitty Santa Cruz [link] For more information about this campaign contact John E. Colby [colby@docktorcat.com].

2013-08-01 "City of Santa Cruz seems complicit in crimes against Mission Gardens residents, Carl Reimer and the taxpayers"
message from John Colby to Santa Cruz
Mayor Hilary Bryant and Santa Cruz City Council:

Dear Mayor Bryant and Santa Cruz City Council:
As you know, the City of Santa Cruz granted the owners of the Mission Gardens Apartments — a Section 8 and California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC) funded housing project managed by The John Stewart Company (JSCO) at 90 Grandview Street in Santa Cruz, California — almost 1.25 million dollars in HUD HOME block grant funds for the acquisition and rehabilitation of the property in 2009. Moreover the City of Santa Cruz loaned the same owners about 400,000 dollars for the same. Information about this is included in Mission Gardens HOME grant application to the City of Santa Cruz, linked to below:http://tinyurl.com/n8aehcs

As a law abiding resident of Mission Gardens who has been terrorized by resident criminals I am exercising my First Amendment rights to petition your body, asking that Rory Lachica, whose family has been committing (violent) crimes at Mission Gardens for the last 20 years, be immediately evicted under your powers as a grantor and administrator of the Mission Gardens housing project.
Please note that Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) Sergeant Connor asked me on July 30, 2013 to stop reporting crimes by Rory Lachica and her fellow Mission Gardens criminals to the SCPD, implying that I was bringing their wrath down upon me, that I shouldn't be trying to protect Mission Gardens from the terrorizing reign of a small gang of criminals here. He implied that being a whistleblower about crime is bad. He implied that the SCPD sanctions Rory Lachica and her cohorts making prisoners of me and other Mission Gardens residents. I hope his views do not reflect those of your governing body.
Allow me to lay out the evidence to persuade you to require your planning commissioner and JSCO Senior Vice President Mari Tustin to immediately evict Rory Lachica:

Rory Lachica has been arrested for theft at least twice and maybe more. Please refer to the court records and supporting information linked to below. Note that Rory Lachica has been convicted for theft at least twice as indicated for her conviction on California Penal Code 666, which can be viewed using the links below:http://tinyurl.com/cu49t6thttp://law.onecle.com/california/penal/666.html

Rory Lachica's son Dax Lachica resided with her in their City of Santa Cruz administered HOME unit while he was a three time violent teenage felon and then after he was arrested and convicted for illegally possessing a Glock semi–automatic handgun (for an entire year) like the one used to murder his friend Carl Reimer. Dax Lachica began his criminal career at age 12. He committed two armed robberies and an assault with a deadly weapon as a teenager while living at Mission Gardens under the tutelage of his mother Rory Lachica. Please inspect his probation report, a Watsonville Police Department record and his court document, linked to below:http://tinyurl.com/9dsogdahttp://tinyurl.com/7poqheghttp://tinyurl.com/3jl93rl

Dax Lachica's father Michael E. Lachica was a felon dating back to 1974 according to records from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was charged last summer in Trinity County with possession of marijuana for sale, cultivating marijuana, manufacturing a controlled substance, illegal possession of a firearm and illegal possession of ammunition. They are linked to below. The Lachica family should never have been allowed to move into Mission Gardens.http://tinyurl.com/k29vezahttp://tinyurl.com/kyj2kqghttp://tinyurl.com/k76pyhshttp://tinyurl.com/mj26qvu
Bluntly:
The taxpayers have been wrongly supporting the criminal careers of the Lachica family far too long. The taxpayers have been footing the bill while the Lachica family — friends of Mission Gardens Property Manager Lamonica Bell's family — have been subsidized to terrorize Mission Gardens residents while using Mission Gardens as a home base for their criminal activities. Worse, Rory and Dax Lachica drew gang violence to Mission Gardens which was responsible in part, or whole, for the death of nineteen year old Carl Reimer three years ago last April.
I don't believe Congress ever intended for HUD HOME block grant money to misused so criminally.

My request:
Remove Rory Lachica from Mission Gardens immediately before she brings more gang violence and causes more deaths here like young Carl Reimer's. Mission Gardens has already been traumatized by one murder. No one else should die at Mission Gardens due to the Lachica family.
Please do not retaliate against me for providing you this correspondence nor share my provision of it to you with JSCO nor their senior vice president and your planning commissioner Mari Tustin. Please protect me from JSCO and their attorney Nathan Benjamin retaliating against me for exercising my First Amendment rights in petitioning your body with this information.
I hope that you and the rest of the Santa Cruz City Council decide to do what's right and what's legal, that you serve the interests of law abiding Mission Gardens residents — especially families with children, the elderly and the disabled — and taxpayers who deserve accountability over those of your planning commissioner Mari Tustin.

It has been more than been since I last emailed you pleading for a copy of my HUG OIG complaints submitted on July 1, 2013, content showed below. Moreover, I have called HUD OIG's Office of Inspector General for the last three weeks and the Washington Duty Agent last week and now this week — who said he contacted you — asking for copies of those July 1, 2013 complaints as well as the new complaint I submitted on July 22, 2013.

Bluntly:
Because of my testimony to HUD's OIG I am being retaliated against by John Stewart Company (JSCO) attorney Nathan Benjamin who has given me notice of termination of tenancy effective September 20, 2013, less than two months from now. I am at risk of being made homeless, losing my emotional assistance animals, losing my access to medical care and losing my access to evidence for HUD OIG's continuing investigations.
I went beyond what HUD's OIG asked of me to prove a criminal conspiracy at the Mission Gardens Apartments connected to Property Manager LaMonica Bell, aided and abetted by her supervisors, enabled by local law enforcement. In return your agency has abandoned me by not enforcing federal laws to prosecute Mr. Benjamin for interfering with a federal law enforcement investigation by retaliating against me as a witness in your investigations.
The first business day after I submitted the copied complaint below dated June 29, 2013 via email and facsimile — on July 1, 2013 HUD's OIG revamped its website and complaint submission requirements. Your staff can no longer be contacted via telephone, although your website lists a telephone number for the hotline.

Note:
You sent me a copy of my HUD OIG complaint submitted on July 11, 2013 with days of me asking. Thus you have the ability to provide me copies of my complaints within a short time.

Note:
It has been almost four weeks since I first began asking for copies of my July 1, 2013 complaints submitted via your newly revamped website to HUD's OIG and still no reply. This is either unacceptable incompetence or intentional obstruction of justice.
The HUD Office of Inspector General informed me that my other complaint sent on June 29, 2013 was received via email and facsimile, yet your hotline now required me to submit the complaint via on an online form. Subsequently I submitted two complaints that morning, one comprising what I submitted below via email and facsimile. Then I submitted a new complaint on July 22, 2013 — I need evidence your staff received these complaints in their entirety. Your online form asked me if I had suffered retaliation for providing HUD's OIG evidence, which I answered yes to.

Questions:
*
will HUD's OIG relocate my sister and I away from Mission Gardens criminals who wish to kill us while also preventing us from being evicted until that relocation is facilitated?
*
why won't HUD OIG's Office of Legal Counsel obtain an injunction against JSCO attorney Nathan Benjamin evicting me as retaliation for bearing witness to the crimes of his clients against the taxpayers?
*
why does HUD Special Agent–in–Charge Jim Todak in Los Angeles refuse to allow HUD OIG's Office of Legal Counsel to relocate us, minimizing the crimes committed at Mission Gardens and the threat the criminals here present to us — like violent criminal Dmitri Palmer and Rory Lachica whose son is a violent felon with three strikes against him?
*
why is Special Agent–in–Charge Jim Todak in Los Angeles making excuses why Dmitri Palmer and Rory Lachica shouldn't be evicted?

More questions:
* what will it take for your staff to provide me copies of my July 1, 2013 and July 22, 2013 complaints which I submitted using your online form?
* how many other complainants is your staff causing unnecessary suffering?
* why is it so difficult for your staff to provide me copies of my July 1, 2013 and July 22, 2013 complaints submitted via your newly revamped website, while you provided me a copy of my July 11, 2013 complaint within days of asking for it?

I would appreciate if your staff would fix the *glitches* with your four week old website and provide me copies of my July 1, 2013 and July 22, 2013 complaints which are imperative to enforcing my rights as whistleblower, to stopping JSCO attorney Nathan Benjamin from evicting me for being a witness to HUD's OIG.
Request: I ask that these complaints be forwarded to me by close of business today or I will be forced to ramp up my advocacy to obtain them.
Thank you for acting immediately upon this request.
Respectfully yours,
John E. Colby, Ph.D.

Dear Ms. Snowden:
In order to assist the residents of the Mission Gardens Apartments — at 90 Grandview Street in Santa Cruz, California — exercise their rights to secure, safe and crime free housing, I am writing to submit an expedited FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). I ask that you expedite processing of this request because the requested information is extremely time sensitive.

First, please note:
* HUD San Francisco Multifamily Director Thomas Azumbrado, as described below, implies that Mission Gardens owners have the ability to opt out of the Mission Gardens Section 8 HAP contract, although he claims they do not presently intend to.
* John Stewart Company (JSCO) Senior Vice President Mari Tustin, City of Santa Cruz Housing Programs Manager Carol Berg, California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) Asset Management Chief Chris Penny and HUD all made (false?) representations to Mission Gardens residents that the new owners — Bentall Residential and La Palmas Housing — would sign a 20 year Section 8 HAP contract, providing security for 20 years from Mission Gardens residents losing their Section 8 subsidies. This is described below.
* As of July 1, 2011, CalHFA backed out as the Section 8 contract administrator for Mission Gardens although they had arranged the financing for the sale, preservation and rehabilitation of Mission Gardens as a Section 8 property in their portfolio. Mr. Penny assured me in December 2007 that no Mission Gardens residents would lose their homes from the impending sale of the property to Bentall Residential and Las Palmas Housing. How do you explain all of this?

I believe fraud has been perpetrated upon Mission Gardens residents by the aforementioned parties.
That said, I ask for the following:A copy of the most current Section 8 HAP contract for the Mission Gardens Apartments located at 90 Grandview Street in Santa Cruz, California.

The lack of a 20 year Section 8 HAP contract at Mission Gardens would mostly endanger secure housing for families with children, the elderly and the disabled.
I am willing to pay fees up to $20. If you estimate that the fees will exceed this limit, please inform me first.
However, I request a waiver of all fees for this request. I believe disclosure of the requested information to me is in the public interest because it will likely contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government and is not primarily in my commercial interest.
Specifically, I intend to share this material with federal investigators, Congress, the news media to whom I have been carbon copying these communications with HUD, and with nonprofit (legal) advocacy organizations for their dissemination of information — and to learn how they may better serve their constituents/clients — about how HUD and its contractors work to preserve or fail to preserve Section 8 properties at risk of privatization. Moreover, I intend to post the requested materials on the Internet for other academic, legal and political researchers to view, so that they may better understand the aforementioned subjects. These materials will be posted to the following Facebook groups:
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/OpenTransparentAccountableGovernment/]
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/SantaCruzWhistleBlowers/]

I ask that if the requested materials are available electronically in Portable Document Format (PDF), MS Word Document (DOC), MS Power Point (PPT), HyperText Markup (HTM), eXtensible Style Language (XLS) or Rich Text Format (RTF), that they be provided to me in one of those forms.

Thank you for your expedited consideration of this request.
Respectfully yours,
John E. Colby, Ph.D.

2013-07-24 "Providing Santa Cruz important correspondence with HUD which JSCO may not have shared with you"
message from John Colby to Santa Cruz Mayor Hilary Bryant and Santa Cruz City Council:
Dear Mayor Bryant and Santa Cruz City Council,
Please read the copied email correspondence below to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. Since it concerns the City of Santa Cruz because you administer the Mission Gardens Apartments through the HUD HOME block grant program, I believe you should possess a copy of it.
Please do not retaliate against me for providing you this correspondence nor share my provision of it to you with The John Stewart Company (JSCO) nor their senior vice president and your planning commissioner Mari Tustin.
JSCO was provided a copy of this correspondence, wrongly, by the San Francisco HUD Office of Multifamily Housing, which their attorney Nathan Benjamin later cited in notifying me that he intends to terminate my tenancy effective September 20, 2013, claiming my provision of this evidence to HUD and the news media was harassment of Mission Gardens criminals, the manager and her family, that I violated their privacy. Note that all of my research was conducted using public records. Mr. Benjaimin's notice contains all falsehoods, misrepresentations or allegations that are so vague that I can't determine what he is referring to.
JSCO may have already shared copies of this correspondence with the City of Santa Cruz, since JSCO Senior Vice President Mari Tustin is a long time Santa Cruz planning commissioner who endorsed two Santa Cruz mayors and three sitting Santa Cruz City Council members. The City of Santa Cruz seems to serve Ms. Tustin's agendas over those of Section 8 residents — who are poor, many families with children, or are elderly and/or disabled.
Please do not direct any of the subjects in my investigations to alter, delete or otherwise hide Facebook information — this would impede potential law enforcement investigations, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in federal prison.
Please refer to the following links:
[http://tinyurl.com/mpcvlr6]
[http://tinyurl.com/nrlg8rm]
[http://tinyurl.com/lft2rqo]
[http://tinyurl.com/lsc3sos]
[http://tinyurl.com/ot4zmey]
I hope that you and the rest of the City Council decide to do what's right and what's legal, that you serve the interests of Mission Gardens residents — especially families with children, the elderly and the disabled — over those of your planning commissioner Mari Tustin.
Sincerely yours,
John E. Colby, Ph.D.

2013-07-22 "JSCO, CalHFA, the City of Santa Cruz and HUD lied to Mission Gardens residents about Section 8 contract?"
message from John Colby
July 22, 2013
The Honorable Shaun Donovan
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
sent via mail and email to: shaun.l.donovan@hud.gov
sent via facsimile to: 12026198365@nextivafax.com
Dear Secretary Donovan:
I just received a letter today from HUD San Francisco Multifamily Director Thomas Azumbrado. It is very disturbing to me. Likely it will terrify and anger the law abiding residents here when they learn of it.

Director Azumbrado writes: "Although you have concerns about Mission Gardens Apartments not retaining project–based Section 8 in the future, there are no plans for the project to opt out of the program" [emphasis mine].
His letter can be viewed as a PDF or using the link below:http://tinyurl.com/ltnsvpj

This implies JSCO and Mission Gardens owners can opt out of the Section 8 program. To the understanding of me and fellow Mission Gardens residents, the owners signed a 20 year extension to the Section 8 HAP contract which expired in 2011. Please read the following correspondence to Mission Gardens residents from JSCO Senior Vice President Mari Tustin and City of Santa Cruz Housing Programs Manager Carol Berg which is attached as a PDF while viewable using the link below:http://tinyurl.com/my932xb

Note:
Tustin, the City of Santa Cruz, CallHFA Asset Management Chief Chris Penny and HUD all made (false?) representations to Mission Gardens residents, who were troubled by the possibility of losing their homes after former JSCO Regional Manager Keri Swenson and her supervisor Warren Reed claimed in their first meeting with us in January 2009 that new owners Ken Reiner and Las Palmas Housing had no intention to renew the expiring Section 8 HAP contract. To cover for Swenson and Reed, Tustin and the City of Santa Cruz went to great lengths, writing to Mission Gardens residents that the new owners intended to seek out and sign a 20 year extension to the expiring Section 8 HAP contract.
If Director Azumbrado is not lying to me then they all lied to us, to try assuage our fears while they prepared to remove Mission Gardens from the Section 8 program, to put almost 50 families on the street.

Note:
Project based Section 8 provides residents the most security. Unlike the extended vouchers they receive when they are displaced using the so called protections Director Azumbrado alluded to, many can still lose their homes or otherwise not qualify for the extended vouchers they are provided. Moreover, because Santa Cruz landlords generally don't accept Section 8 vouchers except in the worst, most dangerous properties, displaced families would likely have to leave Santa Cruz, as well as their family and friends here.

Points:
If Director Azumbrado was truthful to me, then JSCO, CalHFA, the City of Santa Cruz, Mission Gardens owners and HUD all acted duplicitlously to calm us down while selling us out. They didn't seek out and sign a 20 year extension to the expired Section 8 HAP contract.

Question:
Is Director Azumbrado lying or did all the aforementioned parties make false representations to Mission Gardens residents — while JSCO continues to aid and abet resident criminals — guaranteeing these criminals homes while all the law abiding residents can and will be displaced at some future date?

Points:
I showed with evidence in the copied email below, that JSCO and Mission Gardens owners had no intention of this property remaining on the Section 8 program. Clearly they never did, while they were not above lying to unsuspecting residents to betray their misplaced trust. Law abiding residents here have been betrayed by JSCO, Mission Gardens owners, the City of Santa Cruz, the State of California and HUD.

My final question: how do you respond to these allegations?

My last points:
Director Azumbrado's staff shared my confidential communications to you about a criminal network of Mission Gardens residents tied to Property Manager LaMonica Bell, while being aided and abetted by JSCO. They facilitated JSCO in terminating my tenancy. Now they refuse to do anything to right that wrong beyond sharing what I already know to be my right under California law.
They betrayed my trust and now have abandoned me without an attorney to be evicted by JSCO attorney Nathan Benjamin. I cannot find an attorney who will defend against corporate goliath JSCO. Director Azumbrado and his staff sealed my wrongful eviction. That is illegal. It is deplorable. You seem to have sanctioned this. I intend to hold HUD officials fully accountable for my eventual displacement, homelessness, loss of medical care, and the potential loss of my emotional assistance cats.
Thank you for clarifying whether Director Azumbrado just lied to me or whether all the aforementioned parties lied to Mission Gardens residents, betraying them in the most despicable manner.

Thank you for a prompt written reply by fax, email, or next day air to show me that I have not misplaced my faith in your integrity.
We anxiously await your response.
Respectfully yours,
John E. Colby, Ph.D.

Dear HUD OIG Hotline staff:
The first business day after I submitted the copied complaint below dated June 29, 2013 via email and facsimile — on July 1, 2013 HUD's OIG revamped its website and complaint submission requirements. Your staff can no longer be contacted via telephone, although your website lists a telephone number for the hotline.

Note:
Yesterday you sent me a copy of my HUD OIG complaint submitted on July 11, 2013. Thus you have the ability to provide me copies of my complaints.

Note:
It has been almost three weeks since I first began asking for copies of my July 1, 2013 complaints submitted via your new website to HUD's OIG and still no reply. This is either unacceptable incompetence or intentional obstruction of justice.
The HUD Office of Inspector General informed me that my other complaint sent on June 29, 2013 was received via email and facsimile, yet your hotline now required me to submit the complaint via on an online form. Subsequently I submitted two complaints that morning, one comprising what I submitted below via email and facsimile. I have asked the HUD Office of Inspector General to have your staff forward me copies of what I submitted — I am being retaliated against for submitting evidence to federal law enforcement of a criminal conspiracy the Mission Gardens (by violent resident criminals, the property manager and her supervisors at The John Stewart Company) — I need evidence your staff received these complaints in their entirety. Your online form asked me if I had suffered retaliation for providing HUD's OIG evidence, which I answered yes to.

Questions:
*
will HUD's OIG relocate my sister and I away from Mission Gardens criminals who wish to kill us while also preventing us from being evicted until that relocation is facilitated?
*
why does HUD Special Agent–in–Charge Jim Todak in Los Angeles refuse to allow HUD OIG's Office of Legal Counsel to relocate us, minimizing the crimes committed at Mission Gardens and the threat the criminals here — like Dmitri Palmer and Rory Lachica — present to us?
*
why is Special Agent–in–Charge Jim Todak in Los Angeles making excuses why Dmitri Palmer and Rory Lachica shouldn't be evicted?

Note:
* my investigations were conducted using public records.
*
HUD launched their own investigation from my correspondence to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan about this.
*
John Stewart Company attorney Nathan Benjamin terminated my tenancy during a HUD investigation of crime, fraud, program abuse and public corruption connected to Mission Gardens and perpetrated mostly by JSCO and its employee Mission Gardens Property Manager LaMonica Bell.

Questions:
* I laid out all the evidence necessary for HUD and HUD's OIG to mop up the criminal conspiracy at Mission Gardens. Why won't HUD and HUD's OIG mop it up?
* why does HUD's OIG encourage Section 8 beneficiaries to report housing crime and fraud but then do nothing to protect them from easily anticipated retaliation, thus violating federal laws protecting whistleblowers to federal law enforcement?
* by federal law JSCO attorney Nathan Benjamin should be indicted for interfering with a federal law enforcement investigation. He could receive up to 10 years in federal prison for this. HUD's OIG can't allow him to flout protections for witnesses to federal law enforcement by trying to evict me. Why won't HUD's OIG enforce laws protecting me which Congress passed?

More questions:
* what will it take for your staff to provide me copies of my July 1, 2013 complaints which I submitted using your online form?
* how many other complainants is your staff causing unnecessary suffering?
* why is it so difficult for your staff to provide me copies of my July 1, 2013 complaints submitted via your newly revamped website, while you just provided me a copy of my July 11, 2013 complaint?

I would appreciate if your staff would fix the *glitches* with your one week new website and provide me copies of my July 1, 2013 complaints which are imperative to enforcing my rights as whistleblower, to stopping JSCO attorney Nathan Benjamin from evicting me for being a witness to HUD's OIG.
Thank you for acting immediately upon these requests.
Respectfully yours,
John E. Colby, Ph.D.

2013-07-11 "Underhanded retaliatory attempt to remove Mission Gardens from Section 8 program"
message from John Colby using the form submission from Hotline Report Form [Hotline@hudoig.gov]

July 10, 2013
The Honorable Shaun Donovan
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
sent via mail and email to: shaun.l.donovan@hud.gov
sent via facsimile to: 12026198365@nextivafax.com

Dear Secretary Donovan:
I would like to think that you are honest and caring, that you have impeccable integrity. Since President Obama has supported you so strongly, I would like to think you are honest, that you sincerely care about the safety and well being of Section 8 residents. I would like to think you wouldn't sanction placing the majority of Mission Gardens residents on the street to retaliate for my whistleblowing, for me exercising my First Amendment rights.
I fear that your subordinates are colluding with or will allow The John Stewart Company (JSCO) — which manages the Mission Gardens Apartments in Santa Cruz, California, a Section 8 and HUD HOME program housing project — to illegally terminate Mission Gardens Section 8 Housing Assistance Program (HAP) contract, which was supposed to be guaranteed to run for 20 years from August 2011.
Please inspect the PDF attachment of the notice and utility information authorization form Property Manager LaMonica Bell — a known criminal and fraudster — placed on residents' doors this afternoon (after business hours). It is a notice asking Mission Gardens residents to complete an authorization for Pacific Gas &amp; Electric to share all our utility usage date — including that from smart meters — with JSCO for a utility analysis. This can be viewed using the link below:http://tinyurl.com/lrgpb57

I lodged my objections to this form two years ago and HUD made it optional in response. Please see my letter to HUD Assistant Secretary Carol Galante about the 2011 notice and that letter from former JSCO Regional Manager Maya Powis dated October 18, 2011. They are attached as PDFs and can be viewed using the links below:http://tinyurl.com/lhfl3nchttp://tinyurl.com/kncnwao

Note:
Property Manager LaMonica Bell states that if every resident does not complete and return these authorizations in 7 days then Mission Gardens Section 8 HAP contract will be nullified.

To quote from what I circled:
"What if I don't sign the form you ask? Well - if we don't get these forms signed then we cannot renew our contract with HUD and the Section 8 subsidies for the property will stop."

Note:
Former JSCO Regional Manager Maya Powis wrote on October 18, 2011 that these forms would be completed at our annual recertifications, which occur annually every February, not in July with only 7 days advance notice.

Point:
If this was true then any Section 8 owner could surreptiously opt out of the Section 8 HAP contract by merely claiming some resident decided not to complete the subject authorization. Alternatively, HUD could do the same. This would make Section 8 HAP contracts meaningless documents — they would provide Section 8 beneficiaries no security for maintaining their Section 8 subsidies.

Question:
Did this underhanded attempt to remove Mission Gardens from the Section 8 program to evade responsibility for aiding and abetting criminals, some violent felons, originate with your subordinates at HUD, with JSCO, or with both in collusion?

Request:
Invalidate this notice and remove JSCO from Mission Gardens before the close of business this Friday, July 12, 2013, for attempting to illegally remove every Mission Gardens resident from the Section 8 program as retaliation for my whistleblowing about them aiding and abetting criminals, for them and Property Manager LaMonica Bell conspiring with a network of criminals to defraud the taxpayers and terrorize law abiding Mission Gardens residents.

To the U.S. Senate:
I ask for a Congressional investigation of the criminal practices of JSCO at Mission Gardens and other JSCO managed properties to safeguard the 65,000 or more Californians in more than 250 properties under JSCO's iron fisted criminal regime.
I beg the U.S. Senate, the news media and legal advocacy groups to help us, to protect Mission Gardens residents for my reporting government malfeasance, crime, fraud, program abuse and public corruption centered on Mission Gardens.
We shouldn't all be put on the street for my reporting criminals which JSCO has hidden and protected from eviction in connection with their friend and relative Property Manager LaMonica Bell!
Thank you for a prompt written reply by fax, email, or next day air to show me that I have not misplaced my faith in your integrity.
I anxiously await your response.
Respectively yours,
John E. Colby, Ph.D.

--Other--
Please provide any additional information concerning this misconduct:
1. Current Section 8 HAP contract for the Mission Gardens Apartments
2. Current HUD policies about termination of Section 8 HAP contracts
3. Current HUD utility allowance analysis reporting policies for project based Section 8 landlords
4. Current HUD policies for discontinuation of Section 8 project based subsidies.
5. Communications between HUD and The John Stewart Company about utility allowances and utility usage analysis.
6. Communications between LaMonica Bell, Amy Gear, Mari Tustin and other John Stewart Company employees about 2010-2013 utility allowance and utility usage analysis
7. Forms The John Stewart Company uses to gain access to Section 8 beneficiaries utility usage data at all its South Bay Regional Office properties.
8. Correspondence from November 2008 to the present between The John Stewart Company employees and Mission Gardens tenants about utility allowance (usage data) and utility usage analysis.
9. Copies of all completed Mission Gardens tenants' utility allowance usage data release authorization forms between October 2011 and the present day.
10. 2012 utility usage analysis report for Mission Gardens which showed that not all tenants released their usage data to The John Stewart Company.
11. Verbal instructions given to Mission Gardens residents in 2012 that the utility allowance authorization was optional. Request that all tenants residing at Mission Gardens between January to May 2012 be interviewed about whether they authorized their utility usage to be released to The John Stewart Company.

Specific witnesses to this —
[John Colby listed 6 witnesses at the Mission Gardens, whose personal info has been omitted for this website posting of his message]

--Whistleblower Protection--
Have you been discharged, demoted, or otherwise discriminated against because you disclosed this alleged misconduct? Yes If yes, please explain below:
The alleged misconduct is for my prior complaints to HUD's OIG about The John Stewart Company, especially regarding a criminal network — some violent felons — of Mission Gardens residents connected to LaMonica Bell through friendship and family ties, aided and abetted by The John Stewart Company which has refused to evict them, allowed to reside and return to reside after incarceration by local Santa Cruz law enforcement agencies (like the Santa Cruz Police Department).
The most recent example of this is Dmitri Palmer, in Apt. F202, who was recently arrested for felonious aggravated assault, but was not evicted by The John Stewart Company. Moreover, certain officials of the Santa Cruz Police Department are attempting to hide that Dmitri Palmer lives at Mission Gardens and was arrested here to evade responsibility for not requiring The John Stewart Company to evict him.
The results of this submission may be viewed at: [http://www.hudoig.gov/node/95/submission/116]

2013-07-16 "Form submission from: Hotline Report Form" from OIG Hotline [Hotline@hudoig.gov] to John Colby:
Good Morning Mr. Colby,
We've received your Hotline report form via our homepage. We review complaints in the order in which they are received. Have a great day.
Thank you,
HUD-OIG Hotline

2013-06-29 "JSCO's retaliatory tenancy termination for providing HUD evidence of crime, fraud, program abuse and public corruption"
message from John Colby to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of the Inspector General (OIG), ATTN: OIG
Hotline Staff [Hotline@hudoig.gov]:

Dear HUD OIG Hotline staff:
I ask for a HUD OIG investigation into The John Stewart Company (JSCO) attorney Nathan Benjamin giving me a 90 day notice of termination of tenancy — citing my providing HUD evidence of a network of criminal Mission Gardens residents, connected to Property Manager Lamonica Bell, aided and abetted by JSCO, enabled by local Santa Cruz government and local law enforcement agencies (who have allowed criminals to live here unimpeded and return to live here after being incarcerated) — as harassment and an invasion of their privacy.

Note:
* my investigations were conducted using public records.
*
HUD launched their own investigation from my correspondence to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan about this.
*
Mr. Benjamin terminated my tenancy during a HUD investigation of crime, fraud, program abuse and public corruption connected to Mission Gardens and perpetrated mostly by JSCO and its employee Mission Gardens Property Manager LaMonica Bell.

How can HUD's OIG allow this?
This is:
* JSCO and Nathan Benjamin retaliating for HUD's legitimate investigation of crimes committed as well as aided and abetted by JSCO employees and officials.
*
JSCO and Nathan Benjamin retaliating for my providing HUD evidence of crimes (from public records) of crimes committed as well as aided and abetted by JSCO employees and officials.
*
Nathan Benjamin retaliating against me under color of law — being a legal hit man — violating his ethical oath as an officer of the court.
*
JSCO and Nathan Benjamin retaliating for me providing this evidence to federal law enforcement agencies — most notably HUD's OIG.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) confirmed these allegations fall under HUD OIG's jurisdiction, not theirs. Please:
* reinspect the following evidence and launch an investigation into the aforementioned allegations.
*
investigate the validity of Nathan Benjamin's allegations against me in his 90 day notice terminating my tenancy.
*
have HUD OIG's Office of Legal Counsel enjoin Nathan Benjamin from evicting my sister and I, as well as protecting us from further retaliatory actions until the federal government acts upon the evidence I presented.
*
have Nathan Benjamin's bar license revoked — he should not have a license to practice law.
*
relocate my sister and I from Mission Gardens — where we can live safely — away from Mission Gardens criminals who wish to kill us (provided my evidence of their crimes from HUD San Francisco passing my correspondence to HUD Secretary Donovan to JSCO, then Property Manager LaMonica Bell, finally passed to them).
*
investigate my previous requests for HUD OIG investigations copied below.

Please inspect my correspondence to HUD General Counsel Helen Kanovsky. It incorporates my correspondence to HUD Secretary Donovan. It shows how my evidence was passed down from HUD San Francisco to JSCO, finally reaching Property Manager LaMonica Bell and the network of criminals connected to her. Please inspect Nathan Benjamin's illegal 90 Notice of Termination of Tenancy served upon me on June 19, 2013.
HUD's OIG cannot allow Nathan Benjamin to flout JSCO's crimes by evicting me after I presented the federal government with smoking gun proof of the criminal network of collusion at the Mission Gardens Apartments. I cannot be allowed to be evicted for being a whistleblower about crimes against the taxpayers, corporate fraud, HUD program abuse, and public corruption enabling it all.
Thank you for acting swiftly to protect my tenancy, investigating my allegations, then having JSCO and Nathan Benjamin prosecuted for the crimes they have committed (against the taxpayers), against law abiding residents of the Mission Gardens Apartments, and against my sister and I (who have been terrorized for more than five years by resident criminals aided and abetted by JSCO and the previous management TerraCorp Financial).

2013-06-24 "Did the City of Santa Cruz retaliate against me for my FOI advocacy?"
message from John Colby:
To whom it may concern:
Santa Cruz City Attorney John Barisone is threatening to shutdown my Freedom of Information (FOI) advocacy which would embarrass the City of Santa Cruz because of their connections to illegal charity Take Back Santa Cruz and their lack of protection at Mission Gardens for my sister and I from resident criminals. Please read his threat to seek a protective order against my future PRA requests — this is an attack on the public's right to know, on FOI rights, on democratic processes in City of Santa Cruz government.
Will federal and state government and the news media allow Mr. Barisone to shutdown my investigations shedding light on the City's relationship to shadowy community groups, illegal charity Take Back Santa Cruz and their refusal to protect us from criminals? Will the news media allow him to shut me down from sharing these records with you?
Point: I believe the City of Santa Cruz ordered their planning commissioner and Mission Gardens management senior vice president Mari Tustin to have her attorney Nathan Benjamin pull the plug on my tenancy at the Mission Gardens Apartments partly as retaliation for my FOI advocacy.
This is an attack on my due process, First Amendment and Fair Housing rights. It's despicable and totalitarian — completely unacceptable!

2013-06-19 "Fear I was evicted now because of my CPRA requests about illegal charitable org tied to local government corruption"
message from John Colby:
Dear Registry of Charitable Trusts,
On an anonymous tip — which I conferred with the local FBI office about (who referred me to you) — I submitted a complaint about the illegal charitable organization Take Back Santa Cruz. I have been submitting California Public Records Act (CPRA) requests about them recently to local government, suspecting they were an illegal charity using their illegal nonprofit status for personal gain and to illegally influence local government.
This complaint to your unit was confirmed as received last week via certified post.
Soon after I submitted these CPRA requests, I was given a 90 day notice of termination of my tenancy at the Mission Gardens Apartments. The management senior vice president Mari Tustin is also a Santa Cruz City planning commissioner who has undue influence and ties with local government.
I suspect local authorities — fearing I would learn of Take Back Santa Cruz being an illegal charity and their ties to it — persuaded Ms. Tustin to falsely terminate my tenancy without just cause (although she was planning to do at some time). They might have triggered it. The CADOJ Public Inquiries Unit told me on the telephone today that your unit would know what government agency would investigate retaliation for exposing Take Back Santa Cruz's illegal nonprofit status related to public corruption in local government.
I will be forwarding you my CPRA requests about Take Back Santa Cruz to you.
Thank you for any assistance you can provide me regarding potential retaliation for exposing Take Back Santa Cruz and local government corruption because of ties to it.
Sincerely yours, [signed] John E. Colby, Ph.D.

2013-05-06 "Laws and regulations under which HUD is acting to address criminal network at Mission Gardens?"
message from John Colby

May 06, 2013
The Honorable Helen R. Kanovsky
Office of General Counsel
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
sent via mail and email to: Helen.R.Kanovsky@hud.gov
sent via facsimile to: 12027083389@nextivafax.com

Dear General Counsel Kanovsky:
I am writing to you about an urgent matter. It is of great importance to my sister Patricia Colby and I, as well as to the rest of the law abiding residents of the Mission Gardens Apartments — a Section 8, HUD HOME program and California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC) financed property — at 90 Grandview Street in Santa Cruz, California, managed by The John Stewart Company (JSCO).
I have been writing to your associates at HUD for the last four years about the dangerous, volatile situation here. After nineteen year old Carl Reimer was murdered here three years ago last month, my communications to HUD became more urgent. In September 2011, I began obtaining objective evidence of criminal residents. As time passed, my pleas became more desperate because the situation here worsened as these criminals and JSCO were allowed to run amuck, acting brazenly with impunity. I gathered more objective evidence from public records that JSCO and the former management firm TerraCorp Financial acted as quasi criminal enterprises by hiding and protecting criminal residents from government scrutiny.
First TerraCorp Financial then JSCO, and the criminals they protect(ed), have waged a terror campaign against my sister and I. They also terrorized other law abiding residents here, especially the elderly and disabled. I have pled for a year for JSCO to be removed from Mission Gardens, to no avail. Then I asked that Property Manager LaMonica Bell be removed, to no avail.
Last week I emailed HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan asking more assertively that the federal and state government hold JSCO and TerraCorp Financial accountable, as well as ripping out from the roots the criminal network of collusion based here, delivering justice for law abiding residents. You were carbon copied this email and also received a copy via facsimile.
I confronted HUD with concrete evidence supporting my allegations of this criminal network of collusion between Property Manager LaMonica Bell and resident criminals, assisted by her superiors at least up to JSCO Senior Vice President Mari Tustin, and perhaps all the way to JSCO corporate headquarters. I proved the existence of this criminal network is factual. It is no longer an allegation.

I provided federal and state government, as well as the news media, the information necessary to reproduce my analysis of this criminal network, confirming my conclusions, to firmly act upon them. Please review once more that email. It is attached as a PDF and may be viewed using Google Docs with the link below:http://tinyurl.com/d39gylw

Last week I received two letters from HUD in response to my serious allegations and supporting evidence about a criminal conspiracy, fraud, program abuse, criminal misconduct, abuse of power and public corruption regarding mismanagement, negligence and HUD's lack of oversight of Mission Gardens. HUD has shirked its administrative obligations to protect law abiding Mission Gardens residents.

Please read my letter to you responding to those from Administrative Staff Specialist Anna Dennis, a low level functionary at San Francisco HUD's Multifamily Hub. I ask for the laws and regulations under which HUD is acting to address my criminal allegations and the evidence supporting them. My letter to you is attached as a PDF. It may be viewed in Google Docs using the link below:http://tinyurl.com/chmfolg

Please review the letters from Ms. Dennis which I am responding to. Her first letter postmarked April 29, 2013 is attached as a PDF. It may be viewed using the link below:http://tinyurl.com/c9ow9w9

Her second letter, HUD's response to my email to Secretary Donovan about the criminal network of collusion based at Mission Gardens, is dated May 1, 2013, the same day Secretary Donovan received my email. This second letter I received from Ms. Dennis, HUD's response on behalf of Secretary Donovan, is attached as a PDF. It may be viewed using the link below:http://tinyurl.com/cztcdjo

These letters from Ms. Dennis greatly disturbed my sister and I. We found them offensive. They are unsatisfactory.
We believe HUD has violated our privacy rights as crime victims by sharing my private correspondence about this network of criminals with JSCO. We fear retaliation from both JSCO and the criminals they have been protecting at Mission Gardens. HUD's provision of my private correspondence has tainted future investigations by HUD and other agencies of the egregious crimes committed here. Now JSCO can concoct its defenses, tamper with documents, destroy and hide evidence, as well as prepping criminal residents possessing complete knowledge of the allegations and supporting evidence against them. Moreover the May 1, 2013 letter from Ms. Dennis raised other alarming questions about HUD's potential mishandling of the allegations and evidence I provided.
Thus I ask you to answer the questions I posed in my letter to you about the laws and regulations upon which HUD is acting to address the crimes, fraud and program abuse I corresponded about. We feel you are obligated to respond to afford us due process.
These letters from Ms. Dennis and past evasion by senior HUD officials suggest HUD is moving to secretly coverup an expanding scandal from public scrutiny by Congress and the news media. I have been carbon copying them my correspondence with HUD and other agencies about the crime, fraud and corruption here for several years. They have been scrutinizing HUD and other agencies shirking their duties to ensure Mission Gardens is a safe, habitable community.

To restate:
Mission Gardens must be freed from the iron grip of these criminals and the criminal management supporting them. On behalf of other Mission Gardens residents, I asked Secretary Donovan to save Mission Gardens. Residents here should no longer live in fear — the federal and state government now have the necessary information to resolve this.
In light of the letters from Ms. Dennis and then my letter to you, please review once more my letter to Secretary Donovan chronicling the history of criminality at Mission Gardens. It is attached as a PDF. It may be viewed in Google Docs using the link below:http://tinyurl.com/bt2nsld
Please review once more the documents referenced via links in my email to Secretary Donovan. I asked HUD and those at other federal and state investigatory agencies to closely review the information I provided. I am confident other's analyses will reach my conclusions:
There is a criminal network of collusion based at Mission Gardens, turning upon Property Manager * LaMonica Bell's relationship to alleged Westsider gang member Dmitri Palmer and their relations to other criminals who have resided and still reside here illegally.
* LaMonica Bell's superiors at JSCO know about her relationship to Dmitri Palmer, alleged Westsider gang member Drew Levine, (violent) felon Nebosia Freeman, Kim Ellis and the criminal Lachica family, particularly Rory Lachica.
* To protect LaMonica Bell and deny criminals live here, JSCO has refused to institute security measures after Carl Reimer's murder — they have hidden and protected criminal Mission Gardens residents from government scrutiny.

Moreover in my letter to Secretary Donovan, I described how local law enforcement agencies and local government, seemingly influenced by JSCO Senior Vice President Mari Tustin, have allowed criminals to live here and return here after being incarcerated. Criminal residents have not been prosecuted. In other cases, they seem to have been prosecuted laxly. I believe that local law enforcement agencies and local government have helped hide and protect criminal Mission Gardens residents.
For the goals of preventing more violence, making Mission Gardens safe, and holding responsible parties accountable, please respond to the questions I posed. Thank you for your prompt reply.
Sincerely yours,
John E. Colby, Ph.D.

2013-05-01 "Smoking gun of criminal network of collusion at Mission Gardens Apartments"
message from John Colby to The Honorable Shaun Donovan, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development:
Dear Secretary Donovan:
I am writing to you about an urgent matter. It is of great importance to my sister Patricia Colby and I, as well as to the rest of the law abiding residents of the Mission Gardens Apartments — a Section 8, HUD HOME program and California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC) financed property — at 90 Grandview Street in Santa Cruz, California.
I have been writing to your subordinates at HUD for the last four years about the dangerous, volatile situation here. After nineteen year old Carl Reimer was murdered here, my communications to HUD became more urgent. In September 2011, I began obtaining objective evidence of criminal residents. As time passed, my pleas became more desperate because the situation has worsened as these criminals and JSCO have been allowed to run amuck, acting brazenly with impunity. I gathered more objective evidence from public records that JSCO and the former management TerraCorp Financial acted as quasi criminal enterprises by hiding and protecting criminal residents from government scrutiny.
First TerraCorp Financial, then JSCO, and the criminals they protect(ed), have waged a terror campaign against my sister and I. They also terrorized other law abiding residents here, especially the elderly and disabled. I have pled for a year for JSCO to be removed from Mission Gardens, to no avail. Then I asked that Property Manager LaMonica Bell be removed, to no avail. I come to you asking more assertively that the federal and state government hold JSCO and TerraCorp Financial accountable, as well as ripping out from the roots the criminal network of collusion based here, delivering justice for law abiding residents.
Now I come armed with concrete evidence supporting my allegations of this criminal network of collusion between Property Manager LaMonica Bell and resident criminals, assisted by her superiors at least up to JSCO Senior Vice President Mari Tustin, and perhaps all the way to JSCO corporate headquarters. The existence of this criminal network is no longer an allegation — it is factual.
I am providing federal and state government, as well as the news media, the information necessary to reproduce my analysis of this criminal network, confirming my conclusions, to firmly act upon them.
Mission Gardens must be freed from the iron grip of these criminals and the criminal management supporting them. On behalf of other Mission Gardens residents, I ask you to save Mission Gardens. Residents here should no longer live in fear — the federal and state government now have the necessary information to resolve this.
Please read my letter to you which chronicles the history of criminality at Mission Gardens. It is attached as a PDF. It may be viewed in Google Docs using the link below:
[http://tinyurl.com/bt2nsld]
Please review the documents which are referenced as enclosures in my letter.
First review Property Manager LaMonica Bell's family tree, which I recreated using genealogical databases. It is attached as a PDF. It may be viewed in Google Docs using the link below:
[http://tinyurl.com/c7hh4kz]
Next inspect the graph gleaned from Facebook friend information of this criminal network of collusion based at Mission Gardens. It is attached as a PDF. It may be viewed using the link below:
[http://tinyurl.com/cmlqmow]
The following documents obtained from public records and a genealogical research service were used to recreate LaMonica Bell's family tree.
* the Santa Cruz County Assessor's parcel information for 215 Surfside Avenue in Santa Cruz, which is owned by LaMonica Bell's grandmother Mildred Whitley — LaMonica Bell and many of her relatives have lived there at one time or another: [http://tinyurl.com/cox3bxd]
*
the Santa Cruz County Clerk Recorder's index for real estate records for Mildred Whitley which corresponds to the APN for 215 Surfside Avenue in Santa Cruz: [http://tinyurl.com/csw7hzd]
*
a living person search record for Mildred Whitley in Santa Cruz which connects her to Lottie Whitley, who I believe is her mother: [http://tinyurl.com/chmk6wz]
*
contact information for Mildred Whitley in Santa Cruz which confirms she lives at 215 Surfside Avenue in Santa Cruz: [http://tinyurl.com/cy65oql]
*
a birth record for Lottie Whitley which I believe to be the correct one: [http://tinyurl.com/c6a4w4r]
*
a birth record for Mildred Whitley which I believe to be the correct one: [http://tinyurl.com/c6ecxsn]
*
the birth record for LaMonica Bell's mother, Mildred Whitely's daughter Diane Lynette Dixon: [http://tinyurl.com/cl2hhga]
*
the birth record for LaMonica Bell's half sister, Diane Lynette Dixon's daughter Eryca Lynn Mahone: [http://tinyurl.com/cqlj4uf]
*
the birth record for LaMonica Bell, Diane Lynette Dixon's daughter: [http://tinyurl.com/cbhlevl]
*
the birth record for LaMonica Bell's aunt, Mildred Whitley's daughter Lisa C. Harper: [http://tinyurl.com/cbgnetm]
*
the birth record for Lisa C. Harper's daughter Felicia Shante Palmer: [http://tinyurl.com/c3eq3ra]
*
the birth record for LaMonica Bell's relative Dmitri Denzell Palmer through Felicia Shante Palmer: [http://tinyurl.com/chramat]
*
a living person search for Dmitri Denzell Palmer's mother Christa Tetrick in Santa Cruz: [http://tinyurl.com/ck2hryg]

The following snapshots of Facebook friend pages for some of the individuals named in the graph of the criminal network based at Mission Gardens prove my claims about this network, as well as supporting my genealogical analysis of LaMonica Bell's family. They indisputably connect Property Manager LaMonica Bell to Dmitri Palmer, showing his illegal residency at Mission Gardens is fraud.

FaceBook network of collusion
Whitley Family Tree
I ask your staff, and those at other federal and state investigatory agencies, to closely review the information I have provided. I am confident that other's analyses will reach my conclusions:
* There is a criminal network of collusion based at Mission Gardens, turning upon Property Manager LaMonica Bell's relationship to alleged Westsider gang member Dmitri Palmer and their relations to other criminals who have resided and still reside here illegally.
* LaMonica Bell's superiors at JSCO know about her relationship to Dmitri Palmer, alleged Westsider gang member Drew Levine, (violent) felon Nebosia Freeman, Kim Ellis and the criminal Lachica family, particularly Rory Lachica.
* To protect LaMonica Bell and deny criminals live here, JSCO has refused to institute security measures after Carl Reimer's murder — they have hidden and protected criminal Mission Gardens residents from government scrutiny.

Moreover in my letter to you, I described how local law enforcement agencies and local government, seemingly influenced by Mari Tustin, have allowed criminals to live here and return here after being incarcerated. Criminal residents have not been prosecuted. In other cases, they seem to have been prosecuted laxly. I believe that local law enforcement agencies and local government have helped hide and protect criminal Mission Gardens residents.
To forestall more violence, to make Mission Gardens safe, and to hold responsible parties accountable, I ask you to act quickly and decisively. Thank you for protecting law abiding residents here terrorized by criminals and a criminal management firm.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Northbay MDS is a journalistic and research enterprise: Unless otherwise noted, all content posted on this site is posted for the express purpose of research and journalistic commentary on our affiliated community FM radio news programs, as provided under "Title 17 U.S.C. § 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use". For more info, please visit [link]